1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fiber optics, including fiber optics used in Fiber Channel interconnections and other interconnections.
2. Description of the Background Art
Optical fibers are used in various systems. For example, Fiber Channel systems use optical fibers. The Fiber Channel standard was developed and adopted by the American National Standard for Information Systems (ANSI). Briefly, Fiber Channel is a switched protocol that allows concurrent communication among servers, workstations, and various peripherals.
FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram of a representative Fiber Channel architecture. A Fiber Channel network 100 is presented. Systems such as a workstation 120 and servers 122 are interconnected with various subsystems (for example, a tape subsystem 126, a disk subsystem 128, and a display subsystem 130) via a Fiber Channel fabric 110.
The Fiber Channel fabric 110 is a system that interconnects various node ports (N_ports) attached to the fabric 110. The fabric 110 receives frames of data from a source node port and, using a Fiber Channel protocol, route the frames to a destination node port. In a preferred embodiment, the first protocol is the Fiber Channel protocol. Similar protocols, such as the a synchronous transfer mode (ATM), may be used in other similar embodiments.
Each of the various systems (for example, server 122) and subsystems (for example, disk subsystem 128) connected to the Fiber Channel fabric 110 includes an associated node port 140. Each node port comprises a hardware communication device at the node end of a link.
The fabric ports (F_ports) 142 are access points of the fabric 110 for physically connecting the various node ports 140. The fabric 110 has the capability of routing data frames based upon information contained within the frames as specified by a class of service. The node port 140 typically manages the point-to-point connection between itself and the fabric 110.
Interconnections between the node ports 140 and fabric ports 142 typically include fiber optic cables. As the use of fiber optics has grown in Fiber Channel systems and other systems, a need for fiber management techniques has arisen.
It is desirable to improve the management of fiber optics used in Fiber Channel systems and in other systems.